There is a t-shirt that says "Born in Maine, Living in Exile." I lived in "exile" (actually a very nice place) for 32 years, and returned to Maine in 2005. That's not necessarily what all this is about, just the only title I could think of at the time.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Friday Five: Vulnerability

Sally, this week's Friday Five positer at RevGalBlogPals, remarks:

I have recently been reading a book entitled Jesus wept, it is all about vulnerability in leadership. The authors speak of how Jesus shared his earthly frustrations and vulnerabilities with a select group of people. To some he was the charismatic leader and teacher, to others words of wisdom were opened and explained and some frustrations shared, to his "inner circle of friends: Peter, James and John, he was most fully himself, and in all of these things he was open to God.

So I bring you this weeks Friday 5:

1. Is vulnerability something that comes easily to you, or are you a private person?I don't like being vulnerable. I'm a private person who takes a long time to make a friend. This seems to increase with age.But then there are occasions when I find someone I can open up to quickly.

2.How important is it to keep up a professional persona in work/ ministry?Hmm. I've mostly worked in fairly small organizations so it hasn't been as big a deal, given that I tend to be rather self-protective anyway.

3. Masks, a form of self protection discuss...I have certainly been guilty (?)of wearing the "always cheerful" mask in the past.

4. Who knows you warts and all?My spouse and my 4 oldest friends -- and very likely my children.

5. Share a book, a prayer, a piece of music, a poem or a person that touches the deep place in your soul, and calls you to be who you are most authentically.A prayer written by Robert Louis Stevenson, whose picture appears at the top of the page; we've said an abridged version at all our children's baptisms.LORD, behold our family here assembled. We thank Thee for this place in which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies, that make our lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth, and our friendly helpers in this foreign isle. Let peace abound in our small company. Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Offenders, give us the grace to accept and to forgive offenders. Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully the forgetfulness of others. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavours. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune, and, down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another. As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind, as children of their sire, we beseech of Thee this help and mercy for Christ's sake.